PLACE NAME
Revesby Abbey was a Cistercian monastery near the village of Revesby in Lincolnshire. It was founded in 1143 by William de Roumare, Earl of Lincoln, and populated by monks from Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire. Kenneth Cameron in A Dictionary of Lincolnshire Place-Names says the name comes from the Old Norse male personal name Refr (which is also the word for ‘fox’) and the Old Norse element -by meaning farm or settlement. After it was closed by King Henry VIII in about 1539 during his suppression of the monasteries, the abbey was demolished and, as with many former monastic sites, a private house built in its place. Like many of the roads on the St Helier’s estate this is named after British monasteries and abbeys in remembrance of the area’s historic ownership by Westminster Abbey. The road names are in alphabetical order, of which Aberconway Road in the north west of the estate is first.
